Aerojet Rocketdyne, a GenCorp company, announced today that it has shipped the first set of four Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) thrusters for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R).

Aerojet Rocketdyne shipped the first set of four solar electric propulsion thrusters to Lockheed Martin at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Lockheed Martin will integrate the Aerojet Rocketdyne SEP thrusters and associated power conditioning units and electrical cabling with the GOES-R spacecraft. It will then be shipped to Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver Colo. where it will undergo final integration and testing. The completed satellite will ultimately be shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to support a planned late 2015 or early 2016 launch on an Atlas V 541 expendable launch vehicle.

“Aerojet Rocketdyne pioneered the use of SEP on commercial, NASA and DoD satellites, and we are excited to now extend these mission cost savings advantages to NASA, NOAA and the GOES series of weather satellites,” said Warren M. Boley, Jr., Aerojet Rocketdyne president. “I’d like to congratulate our Redmond, Washington team for their dedication to mission success supplying high quality SEP flight hardware for another major government flight program.”